The first World Cup attracted only 13 entrants. The first Super Bowl failed to sell out and for years, and “March Madness” was abbreviated NIT, not NCAA.

Many perfectly worthy competitions take time to gain the necessary traction. The CONCACAF Champions League, which crowns the top professional soccer club in North and Central America and the Caribbean, is no different.

The absurd delay in getting the tournament off the ground (Oceania had a champions league before CONCACAF) and the traditionally isolationist sporting cultures of the continent’s two largest countries are the chief culprits in the region’s reluctance to embrace the CCL.

The event wasn’t even organized with reliable consistency until 2002 and didn’t adopt the group-stage format until six years later. While MLS, founded in 1996, took a while to produce teams that could compete on the field, Mexico’s top clubs cared a whole lot more about beating each other than the smaller outfits to the south or pretenders from the fledgling American league.

There are few international club rivalries in North America and scant history or face-to-face familiarity to draw upon. Until recently, most people simply didn’t care.

On Wednesday night, Toronto FC will visit Mexican power Santos Laguna in the second leg of their CCL semifinal series (8 PM ET, Fox Soccer). The two teams fought, literally, to a 1-1 draw in last week’s opener in Ontario.

Santos’ home prowess and Toronto’s flagging MLS form have led many to believe that Wednesday’s result is a foregone conclusion. But whatever happens at the Estadio Corona in Torreón, it will be a match sure to increase the CCL’s stature.

It’s not just the place in next month’s finals that’s up for grabs. Players, clubs and fan bases that had no knowledge or impression of each other two weeks ago now have history and even a little bit of venom. That raises the stakes and imprints on the collective memory. That’s how familiarity is bred and that’s how a title becomes more meaningful.

Last week’s semifinal opener at BMO Field contained everything you’d need to fuel the fire. Missing captain and defensive stalwart Torsten Frings, Toronto gutted out a 1-1 draw with the heavily favored Mexican league leaders. The match concluded in controversy with two Santos red cards and an apparent headbutt by the visitors’ Darwin Quintero on TFC’s Ashtone Morgan that sparked a melee. There were harsh words afterward, with Santos upset that an MLS referee (albeit American) was in charge while Toronto’s Julian de Guzman promised that Wednesday’s return leg was “going to be a war.”

Caught in the crossfire is Santos forward Herculez Gomez, a U.S. World Cup team veteran beloved by many American fans for his affable personality, against-all-odds success and regular scoring binges. His second-half collision with TFC goalkeeper Milos Kocic and subsequent exit from last week’s game elicited accusations of diving from Toronto supporters. Later, Gomez (who scored Santos’ goal) was quoted on MLSSoccer.com and in the Toronto Star saying that his team’s 6-1 demolition of the visiting Seattle Sounders in the quarterfinal decider portended a rough trip for Toronto. Readers were irate at the supposed trash talk. Gomez insisted he never used those words.

Suddenly, Wednesday’s game matters. And Gomez, while slightly sore at the Toronto media, loves it.

“I’m having (Mexican) people on Twitter telling me that they don’t cheer for Santos but they want to see us beat Toronto. We’re aware of it,” he told Sporting News. “It’s gotten kind of personal with both fan bases. It’s going to be a fun game to play. Games like that are fun.”

The CCL has steadily grown in importance in Mexico, both because of the increasing number of games played between clubs in MLS and the Primera División and because of the promise of a berth in annual FIFA Club World Cup, which expanded beyond European and South American participants in 2005.

Mexico’s ties to the wider world of soccer have expanded significantly in recent year. More Mexican players have moved abroad and more foreigners have moved to Mexico as the wealth of the Primera’s top clubs has increased. Mexican national teams have excelled at the junior level, winning the Under-17 World Cup in ’05 and ’11 and advancing to the semifinals of last year’s U-20 tournament. Meanwhile, El Tri is the undisputed king of CONCACAF after blasting the U.S. in the ’11 Gold Cup final.

Finally, simply being the best in Mexico isn’t enough.

“Teams here are putting a lot more stock in it,” said Gomez, who moved south in ’10 after stints with the L.A. Galaxy, Colorado Rapids and Sporting Kansas City. “They want to represent their city, country, in the club world championship. I’ve had the great honor of going to one already (with Pachuca in ’10) and it’s an amazing feeling.”

He said Mexican clubs that advance from the CCL’s autumn group stage (they always do) spend more money over the winter to build depth for the title run. For example, Wednesday’s game will be Santos’ ninth since the beginning of March in either CCL or Primera play.

The Estadio Corona was nearly sold out as of midday Tuesday (there was a time when CCL games in Mexico were ignored), and Gomez is so eager for local fans to get a taste of international competition that he bought 100 tickets himself and gave them away through Monday Twitter trivia contest. He said fans would have flocked to see David Beckham and the L.A. Galaxy, but that they’re gradually coming around on this Toronto team as well.

“We know they’ll be amped for this game,” Gomez said of TFC, which earned its CCL berth by winning a qualifying tournament comprising Canada’s four pro clubs. “This is the biggest game in the franchise’s history. That’s either a benefit for us or it’s going to be very difficult to deal with … You’re going to see a team that’s going to come out and try to win. They have to. They’re a very aggressive team. You’re not going to see Toronto sit back and try to counter.”

History says TFC’s Cinderella CCL run is about to come to an end. MLS clubs are just one for 16 against Mexican opposition in home-and-home series, and no Mexican team has been eliminated by a foreign club since the CCL expanded. Toronto is 0-3-0 in MLS and will be without veteran striker Danny Koevermans, who is suspended.

But the tradition the five-year-old club has created just in the past month, first by eliminating the Galaxy and now with its rough-and-tumble series vs. Santos, won’t be forgotten.

And for Gomez and Co., the possibility of a mouthwatering finals matchup with rival Monterrey (which leads UNAM Pumas 3-0 after their semifinal opener) and a chance to represent Mexico at the FIFA Club World Cup beckons. That’s now a really big deal.

“We’re in a culture where everything is analyzed,” he said. “There’s a lot of pressure. I’m playing for a club right that now garners a lot of attention, not only in our city but nationwide. This is a tournament we really want to win.”